The Cavall Temptation
by Rockstar with a Vendetta
Summary: One-Shot. The Cavall family displays various forms of poor judgement and infidelity. Co-winner  for "Best Multi-pairing Fic" in the 2010 Peculiar Pairings Ficathon.


**This was written for Goldenlake's 2010 Peculiar Pairing Ficathon. For those who don't know, Tamora Pierce has mentioned the names of Wyldon's wife and four daughters, so I promise I didn't just make this up. ;) There's also one mention of femslash ("Vindiction") so if you don't like it, don't read that section.**

**Warning for sex.**

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**I. Obsession**

He had a sweet smile that Eiralys loved, and she pretended it was for her instead of for the pretty lady with him. _His wife_, she thought, feeling that familiar pang. She remembered the way his hands felt on her skin: cool, impersonal, but healing all the same.

"Your body is wonderful," he once said approvingly. "It's perfect for childbearing."

Your children? she wanted to say hopefully, but she kept those thoughts to herself. He said things like that in false innocence; she knew there was a hidden meaning.

Baird pretended he didn't notice her, but she _knew_ he did.

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**II. Rejection**

"That baby," Jonathan said poisonously, "is most certainly _not_ mine."

She still didn't look at him. The only movement was her hands, wringing in her lap. "She is," she finally said. "I can tell, Jon."

"I can't believe that. You have a husband."

Her eyes flashed. "A mother knows. And I refuse to sit here, listening to you deny her."

She was halfway out the door when Jon called out to her, not wanting her to leave him behind so easily, burdened by the need to _know_.

"What did you name her?" he blurted.

Vivenne paused. "I named her Margarry."

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**III. Vindiction**

Sunarine liked all things delicate and pretty, because she herself was delicate and pretty. It was why she set her sights on the Lioness: not so delicate, not so pretty, but fascinating, with a violet loveliness.

But Alanna rebuffed her, firmly, with shock.

It was humiliating. Sunarine couldn't bear it—she wanted revenge, but how could she possibly best the King's Champion? It was silly, and most of all, it was petty.

And that, Sunarine reflected with a catlike curl of the lip, was how she ended up laying lengthwise against the naked body of the daughter of the Lioness.

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**IV. Betrayal**

"We can't."

"I know."

Even as he murmured that last part against her mouth, his breath hot against hers, his hands were sliding up her legs, pushing her skirts up with them.

"It's not fair to him," she continued, but her hands were already tugging demandingly at his breeches, loosening the belt.

"He's my friend," he agreed.

He slammed her against the door, and she briefly thought that they should actually go inside his rooms, but then his mouth was trailing down her neck to her bared breasts, and she forgot it entirely.

"Merric," Margarry sighed, and closed her eyes.

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**V. Cruelty**

Theirs was a whirlwind passion, something hot and frantic that didn't revolve around love. With her, he tasted youth again, ripe beauty, and came back upon the virility he thought he had lost. With him, he thought she may have found something stable, substantial, nonpermanent but anchoring. She needed that.

But all good things must end—she began to harp upon him leaving his wife; he began to hate that cruel flower that blossomed in her. So he left.

The last he heard from Yolane was when she sent an invitation for her wedding to Belden. Wyldon did not attend.

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**VI. Secrecy **

He knew her by sight, if not by acquaintance—she was the daughter of one of his own pages, when he trained them all those years ago. She blessed him with sacred rose water, fingers cool on his brow and lips, as he knelt before her. _Goddess_, he prayed, although he didn't say anything else. He didn't have to, usually; the Mother knew his thoughts, and that was enough.

Duke Gareth hadn't lain with a priestess since Eleni; it felt strange and yet somehow normal to lay with Cathrea. He only hoped _this_ union didn't result in a child, too.

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**Please review!**


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